2006-02-23 Earth Knack 008

Earth Knack, Crestone, CO- Robin's place consists of 2 main buildings, one is a bath house and kitchen and the other is where they all sleep (Robin, Mike and the three kids). Both buildings are straw bale that they built themselves and have sod roofs that are planted with medicinal herbs. There is also an outdoor bath house that is wood enclosed with two showers, an outdoor kitchen she uses in the summer for canning and other big events. Water is a big issue in the desert, so Robin has plants around the base of the bath house to utilize the run off. She's planted fruit trees and grows what she can in her garden. She's quite the Woods woman; her courses offered at Earth Knack include hide tanning, blacksmithing, beekeeping, and lots of other primitive and homesteading skills. Robin is doing what we want to do, on some level. Her location is really in the wild. She's had coyotes, bears and mountain lions in her yard and garden. An electric fence keeps the bears our of her bee hives and three dogs keep the mountain lions and coyotes at bay. She said she walked out on morning to find a mountain lion sitting on the hood of her car! She showed us another straw bale house they are building for the kid's godfather. It's about the size we'd be interested in for ourselves. They had done some beautiful detailing in the house. Mike has done several doors with wood inlays. Just gorgeous! We hated to leave, but we made a promise to come back.